Moving to AG Equipment

[Vanllas]

Hi there, new home brewer joining the ranks of AG after getting my feet wet with extracts over the last few months.

I've been looking into electric heaters for ideally mashing and boiling and have come across the following at a very good price Digital Turbo Boiler 35 Litres - Kegland - Get Er Brewed

Based on the description there is no mention of a built in sieve so I'm assuming it'll be a BIAB which is perfectly fine. What my question is, is it more ideal to spend 2.5x the price on an all in one system with circulation tubing or is it just creature comforts at that point and not necessary or end result benefiting?

Thank you all for any

 

[madscientist451]

You don't need recirculation, I've been BIAB for years without it. I do use a cheap 4 qt side pot for a "dunk sparge" though. If you have a decent kitchen stove, you can boil on that and save up your cash for a chest freezer/temp controller to ferment, cold crash and for keg storage.

 

[Barbarossa]

It looks like it could do the job. You can always buy the anvil pump for 50$ and a wilser bag and you have an all in one, kinda.

Seems nice for heating sparge water and boiling the wort, but what I would be worried about is maintaining the mash temp. Without recirculation and not a great insulation, you'll end up with a huge difference of temperature between the top and bottom of the kettle. Also, it has 1C increment, which means you get swings of 3C (6F) which is huge when you want to hit that target. 150F vs 156F is a huge difference when mashing.

You could use that as a HLT to feed a mashing cooler, then boil in the kettle. That's what I currently do with my anvil.

 

[Jag75]

If your going to go that route I'm with @Barbarossa . I use a Grainfather and that recirculation keeps my mash temp on point. It also helps when transferring to my fv.

I also agree with @madscientist451 on importance of fermentation temp control.

 

[Vanllas]

Appreciate the advice, the constant mash temp did cross my mind. How much of an issue would that be do you think if I was to mix the grains BIAB throughout the mashing period, would that lower any adverse affects of varied temp? I would love to purchase a £3/400 system but since its a new hobby, I don't want to drop such an amount so soon until I'm confident in my abilities

 

[IslandLizard]

Appreciate the advice, the constant mash temp did cross my mind. How much of an issue would that be do you think if I was to mix the grains BIAB throughout the mashing period, would that lower any adverse affects of varied temp? I would love to purchase a £3/400 system but since its a new hobby, I don't want to drop such an amount so soon until I'm confident in my abilities

You don't need recirculation during the mash, it's a gimmick and not needed for most brewing processes. Keeping the mash temps at their target is much more important.

For that, help the cause, and wrap a thick (moving) blanket or sleeping bag around the vessel during the mash, or better yet, keep it on permanently, during the mash, heating up, and the boil. Insulation is your friend.

I've been using an (insulated) beverage cooler as my mash/lauter vessel for nearly 10 years. Haven't come across anything better for that purpose.

 

[Barbarossa]

There's another thread on this forum about it. Apparently, the company even stated that it's good to heat up water and boil. Not for mashing.

Get yourself a 11g mash tun. It will be a good combo. Or combine the cost of both and get a Mash &Boil from brewers best or a Robobrew.

 

[DuncB]

Everything has it's pros and cons all of the above options will work. I went for Robobrew with pump when I dived into all grain, happy with it but have upgraded to a Guten 70 litre now. The digital turbo boiler is really just a slightly fancier water heater with built in thermostat. I'd go for a cheaper water heater or use the stove and spend the money on an all in one or the BIAB mentioned above. All in ones still really need two vessels as you need to sparge to get the volume in most cases.

The brew monk and brewster both look good on that website. One way to reduce cost would be to find someone else who wants to brew and co own the equipment. It's very unlikely you will want to brew each weekend so it does sit dormant a lot of the time as an asset.

I noticed they don't come with a chiller coil which would be advisable. Robobrew and guten did come with one.

 

[Jag75]

You don't need recirculation during the mash, it's a gimmick and not needed for most brewing processes. Keeping the mash temps at their target is much more important.

For that, help the cause, and wrap a thick (moving) blanket or sleeping bag around the vessel during the mash, or better yet, keep it on permanently, during the mash, heating up, and the boil. Insulation is your friend.

I've been using an (insulated) beverage cooler as my mash/lauter vessel for nearly 10 years. Haven't come across anything better for that purpose.

I agree with you about 99.9 % of the time. This is that .1% . If I dont use my pump to recirculate the mash temp goes way up. Now I've never tried to mash in higher then wrap to hold but mine came with the pump. Ive seen people discussing the M&B w/wo the pump . I believe the pump held temp far better.

Not only that the top doesn't latch on and has a whole in it . So I can attest its not a gimmick. At least with the Grainfather. Pump offers ease of transferring to your fv as well .

I guess it really boils down to what your equipment is . I'll say this, my system couldn't hold mashing temps better without recirculating then with it.